Great Dane
Heroic canine alien emissary. Origin A canine-headed alien from the Sirrus system. He is of royal lineage which has given him access to training, technology and even powers beyond the norm for his people. However, he has no chance at real political power as his society is matriachal and even it were not, he is way down in the line of succession due to all the litters his mother, the High Queen, had before his. On top of that, he is the runt of his litter, though his mother adjusted that slightly with his whelping gift. It was an ancestral artifact that allowed him to grow in size. When the opportunity arose to make contact with another world, he literally jumped at the chance. He studied for years in preparation and once he hit full adulthood he was granted a ship and became an official representative of his people. He landed near Philidelphia, which is a bit of a miscalculation since he planned to land in Europe, to help with post WW2 rebuilding. His plans changed when he learned Earth's superhero subculture and became a little obsessed. He remained in the U.S. due to the high concentration of superheroes, and remained in Philly because there weren't many in the area. Part of his interest in supers stemmed from the potential threat and allies that they represented that made Earth far more important than originally thought. The other reason was that, deep down, the alien was just a big fanboy and the heroes reminded him of legends of his puphood. The people of the area were only too happy to take him up on the offer and gave him the monicker of The Great Dane. His language was virtually impossible for the humans due to it being as much subtle body language (including ear movement) as it was vocalizations. So he took a human sounding alias of Talbot Molossus. He was relieved when they provided him a guide called The Hydrant: a powerful and sentient robot that seemed far beyond the normal technology for the rest of the world at the time. He was honored to have such a partner to show him the ropes of being a superhero. Since his people had little concept of shame or conciept (and even less of bathroom humor), the reference of a dog and a fire hydrant took a long time to dawn on him. When it finally did, he decided not to discuss it with The Hydrant as it seemed to be a point of contention. Similarly though, the humans referred to the robot as his side kick he always viewed them as equals, and treated him as such. Talbot took everything his partner took with a grain of salt (as the human expression goes) as it always seems to lean a bit to the negative and cynical. Though the ambassador has trained in Earth culture and learned much since arriving he still has a difficult time grasping some concepts. The Great Dane was every bit a hero: brave, kind, outgoing, and loved by all... except The Hydrant. Despite being an odd duo, the two have stayed partners and still fight crime together to this day. Powers *Incredible Strength: His people have a higher gravity world which makes them of denser stock. Additional training throughout life has increased this strength. He can easily lift 1 ton as a result. To prevent from loosing muscle mass due to Earth's gravity he spends a great deal of time on his ship (with artificial gravity) and excercising to stay in peak condition. His dense body also gives him a great deal of endurance and duribility. *Engeneered Health: The redundant genes of the royal line were once an issue for his people, but since genetic treatments that is no longer a concern. Now his people, especially the royal family, have very long and generally very healthy lives. *Canine Attributes: His species isn't just dog like in appearance, they actually evolved from dog like creatures. They have maintained many of those traits like an amazing sense of smell and hearing, though similarly they have somewhat limitted color recognition. Most amazing is their ability to sense electric and atmospheric variances, which allows him to predict the weather and such. Also, when used in conjuction with his sense of smell, he can easily detect most people's emotional states. His people also have powerful jaws and sharp teeth, but biting any being is even more of a taboo than it is for humans. For them it isn't just a sign of insanity, it can actually cause them to become insane if they were to do so. *Growth: His ancetral artifact allows him to grow to be over 100ft tall. He uses this sparingly as it makes him a big target and puts a great strain on his body. Also, he is a little worried he could cause much more damage than preventing at that size. The item is a blueish disk, which he alternates the position of on his costume with several other decoy disks. The disk can also alter his shape into a human form, but he finds the process very uncomfortable both physically and mentally, so he would only use it in the most dire emergancy. *Alien Tech: He has some of the technology of his star traveling people. The biggest is of course his ship, which doubles as his home and mobile HQ. It has communication equipment to talk to his home world and a highly advanced medical bay. The ship isn't a true AI, but it is smart enough to carry out most tasked he asks for. Mostly this is via robotic arms the ship can sprout from almost anywhere in it's interior. in addition to his ship he has his ambassador's uniform (which is a self sealing space suit as well as body armor), his stun ray gun and his collapsable ceromonial blade. Notes The Great Dane is an "Open-Source Character" and was created specifically for use by anyone. The only rule about using him is that your work must have this notation: "The character of The Great Dane is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving The Great Dane, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed." Category:Male Characters Category:Extra-terrestrial Characters Category:Rob Whelehan - Creator Category:2013 Debuts Category:Giant Characters Category:Royal Characters Category:Open Source Characters Category:Talking Animals Category:Sci-Fi Heroes Category:Canine Characters